$8,000 (or $6,500) Home Buyer Tax Credit ”“ Extended Again?

If you arrived here via a search engine, please pay careful attention to the date of publication.
There are dozens of articles on this site about the Home Buyer Tax Credit. You can see them all here.
For the most recent news about the Home Buyer Tax credit, please see this article (July 2, 2010).

The $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit ($6,500 for existing homeowners) is scheduled to expire April 30 (sales contracts signed by April 30 have until June 30 to close).

I’ve written a LOT about this tax credit over the past year. Depending on who you chose to believe, the tax credit has been wildly successful or a miserable failure in helping the real estate market recover.

Personally, I think it falls somewhere in between those two extremes.

I’m sure some people have bought homes only because of the credit. Let’s face it, eight grand is a decent chunk of change.

But buying a home solely to score $8,000 is a bad idea. Do that, and you’ll likely find that $8K evaporates swiftly. “Incentivizing” people to buy homes is fundamentally a bad decision on the government’s part. Personally I have yet to run across a home buyer that is buying now solely because of the tax credit. I’ve heard other agents though claim it has increased sales. I wonder though, how many of these agents asked the specific question, “Are you buying now only because of the tax credit?” My guess is most people buying now and getting the tax credit would have bought in the near future anyway, and if that is the case, how exactly does this credit stimulate the housing market?

I’d rather see the government step out of trying to influence the real estate market. It will self-correct, albeit not as quickly as most would like.

Now word is starting to trickle out of Washington, D.C. that certain entities (notably the NAR — National Association of Realtors) are lobbying Congress for yet another extension of the home buyer tax credit (see Wall Street Journal, Take Three; Will Congress Extend the Home Buyer Tax Credit?).

NAR strongly supports the first-time homebuyer credit. NAR also believes it should be extended through 2010.

Legislative/Regulatory Status/Outlook:

Senate Finance Committee Chairman has taken a very vocal and strong position that the homebuyer credit will not be extended again and that it will expire on April 30, 2010, as presently scheduled. The transition rule through July 1 will be retained.

My gut feeling is the tax credit will not be extended again. During the debate on the current extension last February, several Congressmen and Senators publicly stated that would be the last extension. Now these are politicians of course, and we all know they can flip-flop on statements and issues. I just called Senator Johnny Isakson’s office and spoke to one of his staffers. Senator Isakson was the Senator who pushed hardest for the original tax credit and the last extension. His staffer Ryan told me there was currently no planned legislation that she was aware of and that Senator Isakson currently had no intention of introducing legislation to extend the credit again.

That’s not to say that some other Senator or Congressman couldn’t step up and try to take this on. The NAR has a lot of pull in D.C. and I suspect (but have not been able to confirm yet) that other Realtor associations, home builders and the like will push the lobbying efforts to extend the credit.

Time will tell I suppose. Prior to the last extension I would have bet big on the extension. Right now, I’d bet that is will not be extended. I certainly could be wrong. That happened once. 😉

Here are result of a completely unscientific poll I took before the last extension:

I’ve opened up a new poll asking if the tax credit should be extended again. I’d appreciate it if you could take this poll and you are of course welcome and encouraged to leave a comment on how you feel about the tax credit being extended again.

In hindsight, I should have added a “no opinion” option on the poll. Let’s face it though, you probably should have an opinion, even if you have zero intention of using the tax credit. Whether you utilize it or not, you’re paying for it”¦

About Jay Thompson

I'm a former real estate broker in Phoenix, Arizona, currently work for Zillow Group and am the founder of the Phoenix Real Estate Guy blog. I tend to drive too fast and scream at the University of Texas and Denver Broncos football teams. My two kids are smarter than most adults I know and my wife is simply amazing.

Comments

Jay – I don't think you'll have any trouble figuring out which way I voted. Now that the proclamations of "let it run 'til 2010" have begun, I suspect we'll see November repeated all all over again. Rampant speculation and half-truths mixed in with a little wishful thinking.

Jay — I dont think it will be extended…I hope it wont be extended. I didnt think it should have been extended last time. But, as you stated, we are dealing with politicians. Who knows what side of the Magic 8 Ball they will roll into this go-round…

At a certain point this will become "the boy who cried wolf" if we keep having extensions. The homebuying public will view real estate agents as constantly putting out the call to "Buy before November", "Buy before April", etc. as false calls to action. Already many potential homebuyers are still waiting on the sidelines expecting that there may be yet this additional extension. At a certain point someone's got to be held to their promises, or else it just makes the industry and the politicians look bad. Not that the politicians need any help.

Hi Jay ~ I was never for extending the tax credit in the first place. I don't know, call me old fashioned, but I think a deadline is a deadline! This time I feel even stronger about it and think there would be a distinct lack of credibility if it was extended again.

All we're really doing is pulling forward people to buy now that would have purchased a home sometime anyway. One way or another the market will still need to correct itself when we stop providing incentives. Let's stop prolonging the agony and start dealing with it.
.-= Denise Hamlin´s last blog ..Weekly Real Estate Market Statistics North Liberty February 22, 2010 =-.

In the wise words of Reagan, "government isn't the solution to the problem, it IS the problem". I agree with you, that homeowners were are not making the biggest purchase of their lives based on an 8K credit. It may cause them to start looking sooner, but I've yet to hear any of my personal clients (who are Realtors) say their buyers bought solely because of credit.

"Announcement from the administration: A new program to help the American people has been created. HEMP (Homes Everyone May Procure), in collaboration with Fannie and Freddie, serves the purpose of providing homes to anybody who wants one, free of charge. Just pay the property taxes and its yours! Limit one per household, good until supplies last (considering the GSE's own half of all the nation's mortgages, it could be some time…)"

I know of plenty of clients who want to "cash in" on the tax credit before it is too late, by buying a fixer or REO in the lower price ranges. Those homes will still be available after the credit expires and I bet I can get that much in closing cost credits but it won't be quite the carrot that it is now. Everybody loves an $8000 check, $8000 closing cost credit just doesn't have that same zing to it.

The Home Buyer Tax Credit was extended once and I have a feeling that there might be another extension coming. Elected officials of the party in power are a bit more concerned of loosing their jobs after the upset in Massachusetts. Now we have politicians running scared of getting evicted and an economy which is still very fragile. I would be really surprised to see the tax credit not being extended.
.-= Christoph´s last blog ..Do you really need proof of a competing offer!? =-.

I think the second extension was fine, but it's probably time for the credit to expire. It's (more or less) already done what it was designed to do. It softened the landing of property values (property taxes) & created an entry point for buyers sitting on the sidelines.

Out of all of the various government programs & spending for citizens to get riled up over, this should be one of the least offensive to most people.

I also don't understand how the only way a program like this tax credit can be successful, the measure is it was "the only reason" why the person bought their house.

This is such a remarkably bad idea. “Our” government needs to stop trying to manipulate the real estate market and try keeping its word for once. Let it end so we can move past the artificially “stimulated” market.
.-= Jim Duncan´s last blog ..Check Out Crime in Charlottesville =-.

Even though I like having frantic clients looking for homes before the credit expires I think its time for the government to stop writing checks that can't and shouldn't be cashed. Hopefully they stop buying the MBS so we can take the hit to the chin and start building back to a "normal" market
.-= San Diego Mortgage guy´s last blog ..Three Big Reasons to Buy in San Diego NOW! =-.

I don't think it should be or even will be extended this time. I would much rather see the government purchase more Mortgage Back Securities and keep mortgage interest rates low for an extend period than extend the credit. At least with lower interest rates all home buyers and home owners who refinance will benefit.

I don't think it hard to find waste and fraud in government, especially during these difficult times. Although the government reports where stimulus money is being spent, is there really a strong belief that the information is accurate? I agree with several other posters that I would prefer the government work with lenders and homeowners to see what can be done to modify mortgages. From what I have read elsewhere, this has not been going well. Oh, btw, is anyone really surprised that the NAR does not listen to its members?

Here's the thing…I was ready to buy months ago and began my search in Florida…Problem is, there are soooo many short sales which take months to close because banks are a mess and unorganized. Foreclosures are priced low to reel people in only to find themselves beat out of the deal at a much higher price….So, I put an offer in on a short sale 2 months ago and still waiting to be assigned a negotiator. Now, I will miss the deadline and the 8K…Yes, I am buying anyway but now I will not have the 8K to stimulate the economy with…such as going to home depot and fixing up my place. You see, most people would take the 8K and put it back into the economy which we need. I say we extend the credit again simply because it is taking short sales an enormous amount of time to get approved/sold. And you have to think that people are not going to just keep the 8K to themeselvs, they're most likely going to use it for their house!!!

I do think that for fiscally minded people this tax credit is hard to swallow, but on the other hand it is helping sales in my community. I live in a community that is about 95% short sales and at least half the houses in the community were built after '05, which most likely means ARMs and irresponsible lending/loaning. My partner and I began looking at the beginning of '09 solely based on the Tax credit, we had money saved, but were not going to purchase a home because of the stories we were hearing. This credit is the sole reason that we decided to put our money on the table. I mean the fact is most people are not going to put their money out in a "recession" without some insurance, "cash is king" right now, and thats basically what this 8k is, an insurances policy in a way. With all the short sales we tried and tried to make it by the original deadline but were getting no responses. We sat with an offer on a short sale for 8 MONTHS with NO response! Of course we continued to look while we waited but everything else is a short sale too. We finally found a house that was owned by an investment company that was being sold out right or traditionally and it was everything we wanted, and it was by the builder we wanted, which is something you have to take into consideration with all the complaints being filed against builders these days, chinese drywall, faulty a/c units, just plain bad work. We are set to close on April 27th, 1 year and 4 months after we began looking, had the credit expired in Nov we wouldnt have bought for at least another year or year and a half. The time it took to buy was something that was not our fault. This credit has influenced people buying homes, we are young and at least 4 of our friends and/or couples have bought because of this credit.

Something needs to be done about these short sales, either stop allowing them or make it mandatory to complete them in a certain amount of time. End of story, the housing markets problem isnt that people arent buying homes, its that they CAN'T buy homes due to "short" sales.

Amen! This is exactly the problem…gov needs to enforce a deadline and make the banks that own the short sales hire more people if that's what it takes. I "heard" a rumor that there is a law in the works that will enforce a deadline but I haven't found anything on it. It just isn't fair for the people that are ready to buy but only have short sales to choose from which takes soooo long to close or even get a response. hopefully this "law" will pass….if it really exists.

Would be nice if they would extend it again. I'm building a home anyway but the 8K would help me out a lot and I mean a lot! I would already have this completed and in my home if the mortgage company and bank wouldn't take so long in getting things done on their end. It's been a very frustrating year for me because everything takes to long to be completed.

I enjoyed visiting your blog site and reading your interesting posts. I look forward to reading your future articles. A home purchase is one of the greatest investments a person can get into and should be made with good sense when the individual or individuals are ready with sufficient funds to cover the many costs that come with home ownership. There's lots of responsibility

& careful thought should be excercised a tax credit shoud not lead the final decision, but it definately helps out.

I hope the 8000-dollar credit deduction should be extended much longer or it should happen again next year. This really helped me when I got a new house at Edmonton because it lessened my mortgage loan. Now, that my younger sister is moving to Calgary she's looking for a good Calgary mortgage company and reliable mortgage broker in Calgary.

If the 8000-dollar credit will happen again this July, it will be a big help. Imagine, not only paying for the new house but others like renting trucks and hiring manpower to move your stuff. I'd say that credit is gold!

Yes I would also like the $8000 tax credit to be continued. I feel there are a lot of short sales still pending. I say keep the April 30th deadline for a signed contract but extend the closing date. I have been waiting on my shortsale to close for about 10 months now! I had a signed contract since last September. I think a lot of other people are also in my situation. I would like the tax credit to help with the furniture for the new home.

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